When you post identical messages to different newsgroups independently, many people waste
their time downloading and reading a message they have either already read, already answered,
or didn't know was already answered by someone else, in another group.
Have some consideration for the people who are giving freely of their time and knowledge
to help solve your problems - post to ONE *on-topic* group if it is not an appropriate
group, someone will guide you to a more useful group in which you will be more likely to get
a speedy, accurate answer. If you really, really, really think that your question belongs
in more than one group, than use the *cross-posting* feature of your newsreader. Do not
post your message to one group, then post it again to another, then post it again to another...
Multi-posting often gives the impression that you are impatient, and that you think your
question is more important than those of every other user who is following netiquette
guidelines respectfully.
You were directed here by someone who already answered, or at least already read, your
question in another group... and they're annoyed that they've had to read it again.
One response to this was as follows:
"Your advice not to multipost is inherently flawed.
With the unstable and unreliable nature of newsgroup and message propagation around
the world, if someone critically needs an answer, then it is reasonable that they will
post to several groups to ensure that a knowlegeable respondent has an opportunity to
do so. It is up to those who would be offended by multiple posts to get over it and
move on. Those who are "offended" by multiple posts probably have no idea about how
newsgroup servers work in the first place. A more appropriate guide would be to
encourage people to post their question to the appropriate group(s) in a clear and
concise manner. Also, it would be worthy to encourage posters to ignore flames,
spam, and trolls."
Clearly, someone doesn't understand the difference between cross-posting to a
reasonably small list of newsgroups, and blatantly multi-posting independent to every newsgroup
they can find. The latter is what I (and many colleagues) don't condone.